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Juno
---- In ancient Roman religion, Juno was the protector and special counselor of the state. Juno was connected with all aspects of the life of women, most particularly married life.Corbishley, Mike Ancient Rome Warwick Press 1986 p.62 As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina ("queen") and, together with Jupiter and Minerva, was worshipped as a triad on the Capitol (Juno Capitolina) in Rome. She was the daughter of Saturn and Ops, and sister and wife of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Juventas, Mars, and Vulcan. Her Greek equivalent was HeraLarousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. and her Etruscan counterpart was Uni. Juno's own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She often appeared sitting pictured with a peacockRodgers, Nigel: "Life In Ancient Rome", page 45, Anness Publishing Ltd, 2007. armed and wearing a goatskin cloak. The traditional depiction of this warlike aspect was assimilated from the Greek goddess Hera, whose goatskin was called the 'aegis'. Name Etymology The name Iuno was also once thought to be connected to Iove (Jove), originally as Diuno and Diove from *Diovona.''P. K. Buttmann Mythologus I Berlin 1828 p. 200 ff.; J. A. Hartung Die Religion der Römer II Erlangen 1836 p. 62 ; L. Preller Rômische Mythologie I. At the beginning of the 20th century, a derivation was proposed from ''iuven-'' (as in Latin ''iuvenis, "youth"), through a syncopated form iūn-'' (as in ''iūnix, "heifer", and iūnior, "younger"). This etymology became widely accepted after it was endorsed by Georg Wissowa.G. Wissowa Religion und Kultus der Römer Munich 1912 pp. 181-2, drawing on W. Schulze and W. Otto in 1904 and 1905. Juno would then be a derivate noun in -ōn-, rather unusual in the feminine. Iuuen-'' is related to Latin ''aevum and Greek aion (αιών) through a common Indo-European root referring to a concept of vital energy or "fertile time".Émile Benveniste, "Expression indo-européenne de l' éternité" Bulletin de la société de linguistique de Paris 38, 1937, pp.103-112: the theme *yuwen- includes the root *yu- at degree 0 and the suffix -wen-. The original meaning of the root *yu- is that of vital force as found in Vedic ắyuh vital force, āyúh genius of the vital force and also in Greek αιών and Latin aevum. The iuvenis is he who has the fullness of vital force.Robert E. A. Palmer Roman Religion and Roman Empire. Five Essays Philadelphia, 1974, p. 4; Marcel Renard "Le nom de Junon" in Phoibos 5 1950, 1, p. 141-143. In some inscriptions Jupiter himself is called Iuuntus, and one of the epithets of Jupiter is Ioviste, a superlative form of iuuen-'' meaning "the youngest". G. Wissowa above p. 135; G. Dumezil La relig. rom. arch. Paris 1974; It. tr. Milano 1977 p. 185-186; C. W. Atkins "Latin 'Iouiste' et le vocabulaire religieux indoeuropéen" in Mélanges Benveniste Paris, 1975, pp.527-535 Iuventas, "Youth", was one of two deities who "refused" to leave the Capitol when the building of the new Temple of Capitoline Jove required the exauguration of deities who already occupied the site.Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, III 69, 5-6. M Renard remarks that the annual procession which took the image of the goddess (represented as a goose) from the temple of Juno Moneta on the Arx to the Capitoline temple in a lectica portantine, stopped and placed the image between the cella of Jupiter and that of Minerva and there, in the pronaos in front of the statue of Minerva, stood Iuventas's aedicula. "Aspects anciens de Janus et de Junon" in Revue belge de philologie 1953 p. 21; V. Basanoff Les dieux des romains 1942 p. 154; Livy V 54, 7. Ancient etymologies associated Juno's name with ''iuvare, "to aid, benefit", and iuvenescendo, "rejuvenate", sometimes connecting it to the renewal of the new and waxing moon, perhaps implying the idea of a moon goddess.Varro Ling. Lat. V 67 and 69 ; Cicero, Nat. Deor. II 66; Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 77. Ephithets Juno's theology is one of the most complex and disputed issues in Roman religion. Even more than other major Roman deities, Juno held a large number of significant and diverse epithets, names and titles representing various aspects and roles of the goddess. In accordance with her central role as a goddess of marriage, these included Pronuba and Cinxia ("she who looses the bride's girdle"). However, other epithets of Juno have wider implications and are less thematically linked. While her connection with the idea of vital force, fulness of vital energy, eternal youthfulness is now generally acknowledged, the multiplicity and complexity of her personality have given rise to various and sometimes irreconcilable interpretations among modern scholars. Juno is certainly the divine protectress of the community, who shows both a sovereign and a fertility character, often associated with a military one. She was present in many towns of ancient Italy: at Lanuvium as Sespeis Mater Regina, Laurentum, Tibur, Falerii, Veii as Regina, at Tibur and Falerii as Regina and Curitis, Tusculum and Norba as Lucina. She is also attested at Praeneste, Aricia, Ardea, Gabii. In five Latin towns a month was named after Juno (Aricia, Lanuvium, Laurentum, Praeneste, Tibur).Ovid Fasti VI 59-62 Outside Latium in Campania at Teanum she was Populona (she who increase the number of the people or, in K. Latte's understanding of the iuvenes, the army), in Umbria at Pisaurum Lucina, at Terventum in Samnium Regina, at Pisarum Regina Matrona, at Aesernia in Samnium Regina Populona. In Rome she was since the most ancient times named Lucina, Mater and Regina. It is debated whether she was also known as Curitis before the evocatio of the Juno of Falerii: this though seems probable.Jean Gagé "Les autels de Titus Tatius. Une variante sabine des rites d' integration dans les curies?" in Melanges J. Heurgon. L'Italie préromaine et la Rome républicaine. I Colléction de l 'École Français de Rome 27 1976 p. 316 ; Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Anitquities II 50, 3. Other epithets of hers that were in use at Rome include Moneta and Caprotina, Tutula, Fluonia or Fluviona, Februalis, the last ones associated with the rites of purification and fertility of February.G. Radke Die Götter Altitaliens Münster 1965 articles Tutela, Tutula and Fluonia, Fluviona. Her various epithets thus show a complex of mutually interrelated functions that in the view of G. Dumezil and Vsevolod Basanoff (author of Les dieux Romains) can be traced back to the Indoeuropean trifunctional ideology: as Regina and Moneta she is a sovereign deity, as Sespeis, Curitis (spear holder) and Moneta (again) she is an armed protectress, as Mater and Curitis (again) she is a goddess of the fertility and wealth of the community in her association with the curiae. The epithet Lucina''The ancient were divided on the etymology of Lucina: some connected the epithet with the word lucus since the goddess had since the most ancient times a sacred grove and a temple on the Cispius near that of Mefitis: Pliny XVI 235; Varro Lin. Lat. V 49; Ovid Fasti II 435 and VI 449. Other favoured the derivation from lux as goddess of infants: Varro Lingua latina V 69; Cicero, Nat. Deor. II 68; Ovid Fasti, ii 450 and III 255; Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 77. The association of Juno Lucina and Mefitis on the same or closely nearby site may not be coincidental as at Rossano di Vaglio in Lucania have been discovered inscriptions linking the two entities: "μ]εfίτηι καπροτινν[ιαις" and "διωvιιας διομανας" (domina) : cf. M. Lejeune "Notes de linguistique italique XXIII: Le culte de Rossano di Vaglio" in Revue d'Etudes Latins 45 1967 p. 202-221; "Inscriptions de Rossano di Vaglio 1971" in RAL 26 1971 p. 667 ff. The inscriptions are dated to the 3rd-2nd centuries. is particularly revealing since it reflects two interrelated aspects of the function of Juno: cyclical renewal of time in the waning and waxing of the moon and protection of delivery and birth (as she who brings to light the newborn as vigour, vital force). The ancient called her ''Covella in her function of helper in the labours of the new moon. The view that she was also a Moon goddess though is no longer accepted by scholars, as such a role belongs to Diana Lucifera: through her association with the moon she governed the feminine physiological functions, menstrual cycle and pregnancy: as a rule all lunar deities are deities of childbirth. These aspects of Juno mark the heavenly and worldly sides of her function. She is thus associated to all beginnings and hers are the kalendae of every month: at Laurentum she was known as Kalendaris Iuno (Juno of the Kalends).Macrobius Sat. I 15, 18; Varro Ling. Lat. V 69At Rome on the Kalends of every month the pontifex minor invoked her, under the epithet Covella, when from the curia Calabra announced the date of the nonae. Varro VI 27: "sic :"Die te quinti kalo Iuno Covella" or "Septimi die te kalo Iuno Covella"; but the text looks to be corrupt: R. Schilling restitutes: "... dixit quinquies: "Kalo Iuno Covella" aut (or) septies: "Kalo Iuno C." ". On the same day the regina sacrorum sacrificed to Juno a white sow or lamb in the Regia. She is closely associated with Janus, the god of passages and beginnings who after her is often named Iunonius. References